CHART: The History Of Political Polarization In Congress

Morgan
Stanley economist Vincent Reinhart is out with a new note
downgrading the US economy thanks to mediocre data and various
other headwinds, some of which are political.

The note includes this intriguing chart on political polarization
in Congress.

Morgan Stanley

We're not 100% certain how it's calculated, but our guess is that
it basically just measures the proclivity of Repubicans and
Democrats to vote against each other, and along party lines. So
if Republicans and Democrats were never on the same side of a
vote in the House, it would be at 1.0.

Two things stand out. One is that yes, political polarization is
incredibly high. In the House its at all-time highs. That being
said, it's been really high for awhile now based on historical
standards.

The only time it was extraordinarily low was in WWII and the
immediate subsequent years.

One of Vincent Reinhart's points is that as you look ahead to the
fiscal cliff, long-term deficit, and debte ceiling fights,
this nosebleed level of political polarization is a reason to be
less than optimistic.